Coutinho would be great on the middle!

By that I mean attacking central midfielder. His vision and weight of pass is extraordinary. If we get Eriksen in then he is going to have to be bloody good because I can't see many being better than little Phil.......for the record I don't mind him on the left coz he's tucked in anyway and it's a good intro to the English game for him. 8 mil? Obviously we don't have to spend a sh!tload of dosh to get class players in.

I'd agree with that Loki, although I think under BR's perfect system where a player lines up across the front 3 (and in the hole) should be fairly immaterial. Seems to me he does want to cut in, and is playing the role I think BR envisioned Borini would, or what Sterling was asked to do in the first half of the season. As the young Brazilian becomes more accustomed to the system, and the players around him I think we'll see more of that interchange.

Leaving the debate on whether Borini should or should not stay, with players like him, Suarez, Sterling, Sturridge, now Coutinho and the likes of Suso in the wings, and maybe the likes of an Ince or similar type player coming in, it’s quite a formidable and versatile front line.

My only criticism of the lad is his tracking back and strength when he does not have the ball. I've seen him track back and help out Jose, but he needs to be more consistent at this, especially if we want our full backs to push forward, they need wingers who can help them out.

But to Colin's point on flair vs. disciplined squad players, that is often the tradeoff. We can play a Henderson wide (or in the past a Kuyt) and get that work rate, but not always the invention. We do get both sides of the coin with Stevie, but let's be honest that is extremely rare.

For me we need both. We need the Henderson, the Allen, the Lucas who can hold up the ball distribute it, but are not likely to go on the mazy run taking on defenders and create something from nothing, because they are the ones who keep you in the game, and create the stage on which the likes of Suarez or Coutinho can do their magic.

Would love to see him play a more advanced role his weight on the pass as u say is superb how many of those superbly weighted passes for someone to run on to have we seen in his few appearances since joining us , hes a delight to watch. Hes what I call a flair player...at one time most players had to possess a certain minimum degree of "flair" or they would never break into the starting line up at a club .These days many make the squad without any flair simply because they possess the discipline to adhere to the coach's "system"...Our flair players currently Stevie G
Louis Suarez Couhtino right now for me thats about it we need to locate more of these type of players and stop buying in "squad players" weve enough of them as it is...we need three more flair players to get us back where we should be...top of Prem !